What the Bible says about Immoral Woman
(From Forerunner Commentary)
Verse 5 introduces the main symbol in this chapter, the "strange woman," as the King James Version calls her. Other translations refer to this immoral woman as a "seductress," "adulteress," "wayward wife," "loose woman," "adventuress," or "foreigner."
The word translated "strange" indicates a deficient quality in a relationship. It represents something that is lacking or incomplete in comparison to an ideal or a standard. This woman was not living up to the standard or ideal of a godly wife, and so the Bible brands her as strange.
In our own lives, if we do not recognize somebody, we say that person is a stranger. The same principle is at work here—God does not recognize this woman because she does not live by the standards that He has established for women in general, and specifically for a wife.
David C. Grabbe
Strange Women